Finding tenants, Rental mgmt, Maintenance & Paying bills

Tag Archives: chennai

This home, located at the heart of Ramapuram is very near DLF, L&T, SRM University (Ramapuram Campus), MIOT, Pon Vidyashram, St. Johns, etc. It’s a great home for people working or studying at the Porur/Ramapuram area.

2 BHK, 1040 Sq. Ft.

Semi furnished with woodwork and A/C

2 Covered parking. When one parking is becoming a luxury, here you get two for the price of one

If you ask the high-rise builders, they’ll say ‘yes’. Most small time builders don’t even know what it means. But the good news is that Chennai is in a Zone II area, which means you can expect earthquakes of only upto 4.9 on the Richter scale. An earthquake of 4.9 may not be as damaging as the Mar 2011 Japan earthquake, but depending on the epicenter, it could damage a lot of properties.

The local paper, The Hindu, carried an article on Chennai and earthquakes and it sounds a little scary. The key take away from the article is

- There’s no certification required for buildings to be earthquake resistant
- There’s no department in the city to certify that a building is earthquake resistant

So, we are left with builders ‘code of ethics’ to make sure that their buildings withstand a reasonable earth quake. With many builders interested in making a quick buck and taking short cuts such as thinnner walls, poor cement to sand ratio, shorter curing span, etc. you wonder which builder really took the effort to make their buildings earthquake resistant.

Property management in Chennai, or India for that matter is a whole different ball game. First, the scope of PM is wider and critical than in other countries and second, the common PM functions are much more challenging.

The top 4 challenges for a property manager are

Preventing Property theft – The biggest challenge is property protection, we have to make sure that property is always owned by the true owner and someone doesn’t fake documents and sell it.

Finding problem-free tenants – Stories of tenants refusing to vacate is not that uncommon in Chennai. Finding good tenants involves a thorough background check and calls for having certain “vacatable-tenant” criterias.

Ensuring quality maintenance – When hiring someone for fixing repairs, you can’t just send in a contractor and hope the job will be done to satisfaction. First, you need to send a trusted handyman and on top of it, send a supervisor to monitor the quality of work. With labor shortages in Chennai, the quality of work is taking a huge hit.

Monitoring Land – Since many own land in India, PM services also include managing/monitoring of land to avoid encroachments, violations and other issues.

Although, the scope is wider and no shortage of challenges with common PM functions, Property management is still a rewarding job.